Bath were up against it numerous times, especially when they lost Nick Auterac to the sin-bin in the first half after a string of scrum penalties, and Tom Dunn for an illegal ruck clearout in the second.

The DoR added: “We showed massive character. I felt massively proud of the guys at half time to have dug ourselves out of a hole there.

“The two yellow cards – that’s 20 minutes and it hurts. It means everyone’s got to work harder.

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Blackadder sympathised with Benetton head coach Kieran Crowley, who was aggrieved referee Mike Adamson didn’t award his side a penalty try in the first half when Bath were penalised a number of times in scrums.

“We were probably lucky,” he admitted. “We weren’t scrummaging well. We probably dodged a bullet, to be honest.”